Baltimore Sun: MoviePass is roiling the movie theater industry in Baltimore and beyond

Jed Dietz, founder of the Maryland Film Festival, talks about MoviePass, a card that costs $9.95 a month and allows filmgoers to see one movie every day for that month. (Barbara Haddock Taylor, Baltimore Sun video)

“You only have to see one movie a month” to make it pay for itself, said Bryan Oringher, a Rockville-based basketball scout. “It’s a no-brainer.”

It’s a subscription service so inexpensive it seems to defy economic logic. But MoviePass and its emerging competitors promise to disrupt how people pay for movies — and, possibly, how movie theaters make money. It could offer a solution to the declining attendance that has long threatened the movie industry.

Theater operators and industry analysts wonder how it can make money. MoviePass pays theaters full price for each ticket it buys for its subscribers. They wonder if MoviePass will spoil the public with low prices, or seek a share of concession sales in exchange for luring more customers to theaters.